Maureen Roin 1929 - 2006

Helped create Jewish memorial site

Ex-Girl Scouts leader was once a teacher

Maureen Roin believed in helping others and practiced that belief throughout her life.

She lent her energy to numerous causes, from a tribute to non-Jews who sheltered Jews during the Holocaust to ensuring the success of a new synagogue to cleaning up a cabin at a Girl Scouts camp.

And in her free time, she embraced politics, books, skiing, hiking, discussion groups, museums, recycling and raising her three children.

"Maureen just gave of herself continuously, that was the epitome of her--to give," said Rabbi Harold Kudan, retired leader of Am Shalom, a reform Jewish congregation in Glencoe established more than three decades ago by a group of families that included Mrs. Roin and her husband, Dan.

"She was just an amazing woman with many, many interests," Kudan said. "She was good-hearted, kind, gracious, generous, cultured and a bright woman. She was the chair of our religious education committee ... she was involved in everything. She was tireless."

As a founding committee member, Mrs. Roin helped in the 1980s to create the Avenue of the Righteous, a tree-lined walkway within Ingraham Park in Evanston that is a memorial to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Each tree represents individuals and groups of people.

"She was the mainstay of our project," said Kudan, who is credited with the idea of the walkway based on a similar memorial in Jerusalem. "She went to find people among the righteous. Some had been identified, most had not. She did the research to get them recognized by Israel ... so that we could recognize them. She was on the board, served as chairman and was a president. She really dedicated herself to the cause in every way possible."

Born Maureen Mintz in Chicago, Mrs. Roin was raised in Chicago and graduated from South Shore High School, where she fell in love with fellow student Dan Roin. They were apart one semester when she attended the University of Iowa before she returned home to join him at Northwestern University. They got married in 1950.

They settled in Glencoe for 20 years, where she was an election judge for the Republican Party and then for the Democrats in Winnetka, where they moved in 1970.

With a bachelor's degree in education, she taught for several years after college in the Chicago Public Schools system, quitting when she became a mother.

"She was one of the old-style professional volunteers of her era," said her daughter, Julie. "She was a really smart woman who with her level of smarts and energy would have been an executive at a corporation if it were now. But it was a different era, and she channeled all of her energy into civic activities--and friends, she must have had 150 best friends.

"She was just sort of selfless. She did all these things for all these people and organizations. When she saw a need that was not being fulfilled, she just jumped in and did it. She was a really good person, but she was not interested in titles or recognition; she was interested in getting the job done."

During the 1960s when Mrs. Roin's two daughters became involved in Girls Scouts, so did she, working her way up from Brownie leader to president of the former Glencoe Girl Scout Council. She also was president of the organization that maintained a cabin in a wooded area in Glencoe that was used by the Girl Scouts as a day camp, helping to clean it twice a year.

Other survivors include her son, Howard; another daughter, Kathy; and five grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Am Shalom, 840 Vernon Ave., Glencoe.